From left, student Jorge Padron Jr., 18, and his parents Maria Vargas and Jorge Padron Sr., get scholarship information during a financial aid Thursday event at Fremont High School in Oakland.

Student Natalie Guzman signs a certificate after winning a drawing for a $500 scholarship from the East Bay Consortium of Educational Institutions during an event to help students signup for college financial aid at Fremont High School in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016. The event had counselors with the East Bay Consortium of Educational Institutions coached parents and students through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid process as well as talking to them about grants and scholarships. The event also featured representatives from colleges as well as tables with scholarship information and a career in law enforcement. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)

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Jaliza Collins, Program Coordinator for the East Bay Consortium of Educational Institutions, talks to students and parents about getting college financial aid during an event at Fremont High School in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016. Collins and other counselors coached parents and students through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid process as well as talking to them about grants and scholarships. The event also featured representatives from colleges as well as tables with scholarship information and a career in law enforcement. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)

Shawn Stith, 17, right, gives a hug to Karen Compton, with the Bethune-Cookman University office if admissions, after Stith filled out an application during an event to help students signup for college financial aid at Fremont High School in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016. Counselors with the East Bay Consortium of Educational Institutions coached parents and students through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid process as well as talking to them about grants and scholarships. The event also featured representatives from colleges as well as tables with scholarship information and a career in law enforcement. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)

From left, students Anastasia Tupou, 17, Evelin Martinez, 18, and Anjelica Gandy, 16, fill out applications for Bethune-Cookman University during an event to help students signup for college financial aid at Fremont High School in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016. Counselors with the East Bay Consortium of Educational Institutions coached parents and students through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid process as well as talking to them about grants and scholarships. The event also featured representatives from colleges as well as tables with scholarship information and a career in law enforcement. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)

Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group

Parents and students listen to Jaliza Collins, Program Coordinator for the East Bay Consortium of Educational Institutions, as she talks about getting college financial aid during an event at Fremont High School in Oakland on Thursday.

Jaliza Collins, Program Coordinator for the East Bay Consortium of Educational Institutions, talks to students and parents about getting college financial aid during an event at Fremont High School in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016. Collins and other counselors coached parents and students through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid process as well as talking to them about grants and scholarships. The event also featured representatives from colleges as well as tables with scholarship information and a career in law enforcement. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)

Student Curtis Angelo, 17, left, talks with Karen Compton, with the Bethune-Cookman University office if admissions, as he fills out an application during an event to help students signup for college financial aid at Fremont High School in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016. Counselors with the East Bay Consortium of Educational Institutions coached parents and students through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid process as well as talking to them about grants and scholarships. The event also featured representatives from colleges as well as tables with scholarship information and a career in law enforcement. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)

Jaliza Collins, Program Coordinator for the East Bay Consortium of Educational Institutions, right, helps student Jorge Padron Jr., 18, center, and his parents Maria Vargas and Jorge Padron Sr., with signing up for college financial aid during an event at Fremont High School in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016. Collins and other counselors coached parents and students through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid process as well as talking to them about grants and scholarships. The event also featured representatives from colleges as well as tables with scholarship information and a career in law enforcement. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)

Student Evelin Martinez, 18, fills out an application for Bethune-Cookman University during an event to help students signup for college financial aid at Fremont High School in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016. Counselors with the East Bay Consortium of Educational Institutions coached parents and students through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid process as well as talking to them about grants and scholarships. The event also featured representatives from colleges as well as tables with scholarship information and a career in law enforcement. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)

Student Curtis Angelo, 17, fills out a form during an event to help students signup for college financial aid at Fremont High School in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016. Counselors with the East Bay Consortium of Educational Institutions coached parents and students through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid process as well as talking to them about grants and scholarships. The event also featured representatives from colleges as well as tables with scholarship information and a career in law enforcement. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)

Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group

Students Curtis Angelo, 17, left, and Shawn Stith, 17, talk with Karen Compton, with the Bethune-Cookman University office if admissions, as both fill out an application during an event to help students signup for college financial aid at Fremont High School in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016. Counselors with the East Bay Consortium of Educational Institutions coached parents and students through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid process as well as talking to them about grants and scholarships. The event also featured representatives from colleges as well as tables with scholarship information and a career in law enforcement. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)

Jaliza Collins, Program Coordinator for the East Bay Consortium of Educational Institutions, left, signs a certificate for student Natalie Guzman after Guzman won a drawing for a $500 scholarship during an event to help students signup for college financial aid at Fremont High School in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016. Counselors with the East Bay Consortium of Educational Institutions coached parents and students through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid process as well as talking to them about grants and scholarships. The event also featured representatives from colleges as well as tables with scholarship information and a career in law enforcement. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)

Jaliza Collins, Program Coordinator for the East Bay Consortium of Educational Institutions, talks to students and parents about getting college financial aid during an event at Fremont High School in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016. Collins and other counselors coached parents and students through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid process as well as talking to them about grants and scholarships. The event also featured representatives from colleges as well as tables with scholarship information and a career in law enforcement. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)

On a rainy Thursday evening, Jorge Padrón came to his high school library on a mission: to find a way to pay for his college education.

“It’s scary when you see these prices,” said his father, Jorge Padrón Sr., a supervisor at an Oakland olive oil company. “But I tell him, I’ll do what I can to get him there, even if I have to pick up cans.”

Big changes to the complicated process of applying for need-based government grants for college mean students like Jorge, a senior at Oakland’s Fremont High School, won’t have to wait until next spring to find out how much money they are likely to receive — and what their families would need to borrow or pay to make up the difference.

Starting this year, college-bound students can applyfor the money three months earlier, starting Oct. 1, before they even apply to college. Once they submit the form they will get instant emails from the feds — and later, preliminary letters from the state — about whether they are likely to qualify for federal Pell Grants and state Cal Grants, the bulk of available financial aid, based on their grades and family income.

“It gives them a huge peace of mind. Huge. I can’t tell you,” said Mildred Llanos-Richards, head counselor at James Lick High School in San Jose’s East Side Union High School District, where 70 seniors turned out this month to submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA.

Llanos-Richards hopes it encourages students to apply to schools they might have assumed were out of reach.

Lick High School seniors Nayely Flores and Thomas Estrada said their parents had been worried that many four-year colleges would be too costly. The welcomed financial aid news, they said, changed their minds.

“After we saw that I qualified for the Cal Grant, that kind of encouraged us to keep moving forward with the college applications,” said Flores, who — like Estrada — has her sights set on UC Berkeley.

Take the University of California, where Pell and Cal grants totaling roughly $18,000 per year would cover more than half the total cost of attendance, including housing, food and books. Many colleges, such as UC Berkeley, also offer other need-based scholarships.

The overhauled financial aid process uses 2015 tax data — no longer the current tax year — which means students don’t have to wait until their families file their taxes next spring to apply for financial aid. Students now have five months instead of two to submit the form by the March 2 deadline, which has not changed.

Many hope those changes help more students tap into sources of aid that can make a college education possible. Across the country, more than 747,000 students would have qualified for federal Pell Grants in 2014 if they had completed the financial aid paperwork on time, according to an analysis published in January by the the personal finance site NerdWallet.

The analysis found that recent high school graduates — including those who did not go to college — left as much as $2.7 billion on the table that year. In California, the estimated total was $342 million.

“Opportunity isn’t there if you don’t know about it,” said Michele Siqueiros, president of Campaign for College Opportunity in Los Angeles. “And certainly, if you don’t think you have the financial ability to go to college, you’re not going.”

Many students are filing early. The California Student Aid Commission received 283,270 FAFSA applications from high school seniors and continuing college students in the first 24 days of October — slightly fewer than the 330,148 who applied during the first few weeks in January, when the process used to open.

The commission — which awards over $2 billion in Cal Grants each year — will begin sending preliminary letters to students this month, telling them how much they would receive in “free money” from the state.

“We see this as a huge game-changer,” said Lupita Cortez Acalá, the commission’s director. “It’s a lot simpler, it’s easier, it’s earlier.”

The sped-up timeline, which President Obama announced in September 2015, has put extra pressure on high schools, which have scrambled to set up financial aid workshops much earlier in the year. School districts were also asked to submit students’ sophomore- and junior-year grades to the California Student Aid Commission by October — far ahead of the traditional March 2 deadline.

So far, fewer than 30 percent of the state’s school districts with high schools have done so, according to the commission. Until the commission has that information, it cannot make the preliminary awards.

The timing has been overwhelming for some students as well, said Krista Jann, a college and career counselor at Richmond High School. “It’s kind of been double the work,” Jann said. “We’re trying to help them with their college applications and financial aid at the same time.”

But Estrada, the Lick senior, said submitting the aid application early — and knowing even before he applies to college that he can afford it — was worth the extra effort.

The daunting prospect of paying for college, he said, “just feels so much more accomplishable.”

KEY CHANGES TO THE FAFSA

Students can apply as early as Oct. 1 — rather than Jan. 1 — to find out sooner if they are likely to qualify for federal Pell Grants or state Cal Grants based on their family’s finances and their high school GPAs. The March 2 deadline for state aid has not changed.

Families use 2015 tax information — rather than waiting to file and get returns next spring for 2016. An IRS feature can fill in the numbers electronically.

HOW MUCH AID YOU MIGHT RECEIVE

Pell Grant award: $5,815 per year in 2016-17 — likely to remain the same in 2017.

Katy Murphy is based in Sacramento and covers state government for The Mercury News and East Bay Times, a beat she took on in January 2017. Before that, she was the news organization's higher education reporter, writing about UC, CSU, community colleges and private colleges. Long ago, she covered Oakland schools and other K-12 education issues.

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